


Practical Tactics

by TheColorBlue



Series: Frozen Heart [4]
Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-02
Updated: 2013-12-02
Packaged: 2018-01-03 06:58:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1067427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheColorBlue/pseuds/TheColorBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being the duke's bodyguards, Ernst and Helmuth have seen a lot in their day, but this business with Arendelle really took the cake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practical Tactics

Probably, this had been the strangest trip that the Duke had brought Ernst and Helmuth on, by far, and that was actually saying a lot. The Duke tended to bring strangeness with him, particularly in a ballroom, or any other social setting, but he paid well, and his equal parts paranoia, greed, and sense for self-preservation meant that Ernst and Helmuth were guaranteed steady employment for a while. Also, the Duke liked to have the same faces around him, most of the time. It calmed his nerves. 

So, yeah. 

Ernst and Helmuth were going to be around for a while. 

It wasn’t bad work. The dukedom of Weselton was prosperous, generally safe, and had a pleasant countryside. The Duke himself was an eccentric and, all right, sometimes he could get a little panicky, but was it _really_ irrational fear he was exhibiting? Maybe it was _rational_ fear in the face of _irrational_ events. Besides, Weselton was the kind of dukedom that didn’t tend to see much obvious magic, to be honest. Also, there was a reason why he hired bodyguards to follow him around. He paid them to be rational when he wasn’t being, necessarily. 

They followed the duke around as he wrung his hands over Arendelle’s economic collapse in an eternal winter, and the impact that would have on its closest trade partner, and Helmuth didn’t tend to react to much in obvious ways, but Ernst was watching the snow drift down from the gray-white sky. It was unnatural, all of this was. 

The duke waved his arms around, and then he started yelling at Prince Hans for giving away all of Arendelle’s tradable goods, or something along similar lines. Ernst traded a look with Helmuth, and Helmuth just shook his head. Helmuth was big guy, with a lot of facial hair and broad shoulders. Everything about him was understatements. Ernst was smaller, but now he was smirking, a little. Following the duke was an entertainment in himself. _Like a chicken with the face of a monkey, he’d fly across the dance floor_. But then Hans was giving the duke something of the threatening look back, and the duke was pulling Ernst and Helmuth in front of him, and the two bodyguards put on their best game faces. 

The duke was kind of a panicky guy, but he still took care of the dukedom of Weselton competently, and his bodyguards took care of him. There was loyalty, even if sometimes it felt like a really strange loyalty. 

When the duke gave them the orders to do whatever it took to end this winter, they took the orders seriously. 

Look. Normally Ernst wouldn’t be so quick to attack a woman, particularly one as young as Queen Elsa, and someone who had so clearly behaved like a deer caught in torchlight: all fear and panic and fleeing. 

On the other hand, she was obviously dangerous. The snow was coming down slowly, but steadily, and every hour the temperature seemed to drop. The ships were caught in the frozen fjord. Everyone was trapped, and in a few days people would be dying and you now what, even a woman could be dangerous, whatever people said about their womenfolk. 

The dukedom of Weselton didn’t see a lot of magic. At least, none that Ernst had ever noticed before. Maybe there was a reason for that. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe, sometimes you had to smash a seed before the ensuing weed strangled everything else in the garden. 

While they prepared for the journey into the mountains, packing their gear in their shared quarters, Helmuth said to Ernst, “Crossbows will be best. You’ve seen her magic. She’ll have to be killed from a distance.” 

Ernst glanced over at Helmuth, and caught the extra sheaf of arrows when Helmuth tossed it to him. He inspected the arrowheads, looking at the lines of them in the light of their torches, and then sighed. It was going to be a long day. 

“Goddamn sorcery,” he muttered, shaking his head, and now it was Helmuth’s turn to smirk at him. Their saddlebags were packed, they left the room to join the Arendelle search party.

**Author's Note:**

> The comments about rational vs. irrational fear can be credited to [Alan Tudyk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiK3Vnp83lo). :)


End file.
